Nonfics

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
() Jordan M. Smith A beautifully crafted, heart-wrenchingly tragic, observational encapsulation of the shredding of one family's way of life. EDIT
Posted Feb 3, 2020
Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story (2020) Jordan M. Smith Doesn't delve deep enough into the void and back again to leave a cartoonish hammerhead imprint on the brain or a tear-soaked membrane around our swollen, bleeding hearts. EDIT
Posted Jan 25, 2020
() Valerie Ettenhofer The biography starts simple and builds upon itself, much like a Cash song, so that by the end it's become overwhelming in its humanity. EDIT
Posted Oct 18, 2019
() Valerie Ettenhofer Rewind lacks the built-in attention that comes with headline-grabbing cases, but it should be counted among the most important stories of its kind. EDIT
Posted Oct 18, 2019
() Jordan M. Smith 143 Sahara Street is full of pleasant and often funny surprises, revealing a great amount of humanity in a setting that seems downright inhospitable. EDIT
Posted Sep 23, 2019
Where's My Roy Cohn? (2019) Katherine Steinbach Matt Tyrnauer's scintillating, gossipy, heavy-handed documentary delves into Cohn's contradictions without much illumination. EDIT
Posted Sep 20, 2019
I Know I Am Not Alone (2005) Jordan M. Smith I Am Not Alone takes pains to make sure we not only know what exactly is happening at any given moment but also why. EDIT
Posted Sep 19, 2019
Our Godfather (2019) Katherine Steinbach Tommaso's Italian traditions, his portrayal of masculinity, and his profound identity crisis after exiting the Mafia give the documentary a contemplative core. EDIT
Posted Sep 18, 2019
Liam Gallagher: As It Was (2019) Hayden Cornmell Merely an exercise in proving what a swell guy Liam Gallagher is, with an endless parade of friends and family members sitting down to sing his praises. EDIT
Posted Sep 17, 2019
The Cave (2019) Jordan M. Smith These are remarkable humans, and deservingly, Fayyad has fashioned a remarkable portrait in their honor. EDIT
Posted Sep 17, 2019
() Jordan M. Smith A work of refreshing spontaneity and continuous revelation. EDIT
Posted Sep 16, 2019
() Jordan M. Smith A complex and deeply moving tale that speaks to our times and, most thankfully, our heart. EDIT
Posted Sep 16, 2019
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019) Sophia Stewart An excellent retrospective and celebration of Ronstadt's trailblazing career. EDIT
Posted Sep 3, 2019
Jawline (2019) Jenna Benchetrit The documentary's most notable strength is how it values the young, overwhelmingly female fans of social media influencers. EDIT
Posted Aug 25, 2019
The Amazing Johnathan Documentary (2019) Christopher Campbell It's funny that Berman worried so much about there being too many docs being made about Szeles since he wound up basically making two in one. And both of them are exceptional. EDIT
Posted Aug 20, 2019
What You Gonna Do When The World's On Fire? (2018) Sophia Stewart A beautiful but unfocused work of ethnography. EDIT
Posted Aug 14, 2019
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019) J.R. Kinnard Dynamite cinema that sweeps you into a world of intrigue that rivals any Hollywood thriller. EDIT
Posted Aug 14, 2019
One Child Nation (2019) Sophia Stewart As thought-provoking as it is unsettling, it implicitly considers the battleground that is women's bodies and how the fight for control over those bodies still rages on. EDIT
Posted Aug 10, 2019
Vision Portraits (2019) Sophia Stewart An extraordinary film and a desperately needed statement, one that gives a voice to the one in five Americans that live with a disability. EDIT
Posted Aug 8, 2019
() Hayden Cornmell An honest, engaging, and surprisingly funny look back at one of modern television's greatest achievements. EDIT
Posted Aug 4, 2019
Mike Wallace Is Here (2019) Katherine Steinbach A fantastically edited film, electrifying and pleasurable and dark. More than that, it's another example of how archival footage can be masterfully utilized. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
For Sama (2019) Christopher Campbell As we witness the war from this perspective, our brains and our hearts might not be in agreement. That divide is one of the most powerful things a documentary can do to us. EDIT
Posted Jul 26, 2019
Phantom of Winnipeg (2019) Kristen Reid So captivating and heartfelt that even those not familiar with The Phantom of the Paradise are in for a genuine treat. EDIT
Posted Jul 24, 2019
The Great Hack (2019) Katherine Steinbach We need films like this to tell us over and over what the stakes are when we give ourselves over to apps and memes and viral videos. Because we are being persuaded. EDIT
Posted Jul 24, 2019
Time for Ilhan (2018) Brad Gullickson Dips into Omar's congressional campaign, bears witness to the passion of the hopeful attached to her cause, and challenges the divide that splinters even the like-minded. EDIT
Posted Jul 17, 2019
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (2019) Sophia Stewart At this current cultural juncture, the story of a troubled but talented man who left a trail of mistreated women in his wake feels unneeded. EDIT
Posted Jul 9, 2019
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (2019) Sophia Stewart The Pieces I Am's reverent and intimate tone works well for its mission: the canonization of a literary saint. EDIT
Posted Jun 19, 2019
Emanuel (2019) Valerie Ettenhofer Unrelenting, challenging, a must-see. It will break your heart so bad you don't know how it could possibly be put back together, and then like a miracle it will do just that. EDIT
Posted Jun 19, 2019
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (2019) Cole Henry When you take it for what it really is ... then it's an immediately rewarding experience helped along by some of the best-restored concert footage that exists of Dylan. EDIT
Posted Jun 13, 2019
Framing John DeLorean (2019) Kristen Reid When Framing John DeLorean shows us the real-life fallout rather than the Baldwin focused re-creations, it thrives. EDIT
Posted Jun 6, 2019
The Image You Missed (2018) Christina Smith An impressionistic exchange between two artists...the documentary's personal bent is what makes it that much more engaging and that much more moving. EDIT
Posted May 30, 2019
Free Trip to Egypt (2018) Jenna Benchetrit It drops the ball by hesitating to dig deeper into the performative liberalism and deep-rooted bigotry of its American participants.. EDIT
Posted May 30, 2019
() Cole Henry A testament to the colossal effort and toll that crafting such an impressive show can take on every part of the cast and crew. EDIT
Posted May 27, 2019
Picture Character (2019) Andrew Karpan The larger story tracks this decade's change in internet culture as it moves away from nerds festering around California college campuses and into the hands of the people. EDIT
Posted May 25, 2019
() Andrew Karpan Before the warming ocean turns Florida into an uninhabitable flood land, there is value in having a real idea of how some of them lived. EDIT
Posted May 25, 2019
Bauhaus Spirit (2018) Andrew Karpan Bolbrinker and Tielsch's dynamism creates the impression of an art movement that has never stopped moving. EDIT
Posted May 25, 2019
Echo in the Canyon (2018) Katherine Steinbach Watching this film, I smiled and giggled and tapped my toes a lot. These grizzled faces have weird and horny stories to tell. EDIT
Posted May 22, 2019
Weed the People (2018) Hayden Cornmell A wonderfully empathetic look at the ongoing medical marijuana debate. EDIT
Posted May 14, 2019
The Biggest Little Farm (2018) Dylan Brennan The film can be bumpy and overly commercial, but its ability to show us the potential of a dying piece of human-tampered land is ultimately a triumph. EDIT
Posted May 10, 2019
General Magic (2017) Christina Smith Can get a bit mired in the lionizing of Silicon Valley minds...[but] General Magic still comes to be a strong meditation on failure and professional legacy." EDIT
Posted May 8, 2019
Out Of State (1970) Jenna Benchetrit Out of State observes these men without judgment, and the film's empathetic portrayal is resonant. EDIT
Posted May 7, 2019
Meeting Gorbachev (2018) Cole Henry Meeting Gorbachev plays like a fireside chat between two world-weary figures whose major life experiences were formed and molded in a different, more chaotic era. EDIT
Posted May 3, 2019
Decade of Fire (2019) Christina Smith Well-researched, engaging, and due to the involvement of Irizarry, strikingly personal...a moving portrait of a community united against systemic oppression. EDIT
Posted May 2, 2019
Ask Dr. Ruth (2019) Katherine Steinbach This film carries so many intimate moments, they build and buttress a relationship that feels strong at the end. EDIT
Posted May 1, 2019
Knock Down the House (2019) Dylan Brennan Rachel Lears is breaking apart the boxes that female politicians have been crammed into for so long. It's refreshing and hopeful. EDIT
Posted Apr 30, 2019
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project (2019) Andrew Karpan As a vaguely cohesive visual text, [Stokes'] life's strange work is not worthless....Recorder also doubles as a grimy mirror to the TV news era. EDIT
Posted Apr 29, 2019
Scary Stories (2019) Valerie Ettenhofer So jam-packed with passion for its subject that it's impossible to come away without an appreciation for the work and the generation of horror-loving kids it inspired. EDIT
Posted Apr 25, 2019
If the Dancer Dances (2018) Christina Smith While the film doesn't always give us access to its present-day subjects, it still offers valuable insight into issues of artistic preservation. EDIT
Posted Apr 25, 2019
Chasing Portraits (2018) Dylan Brennan With its compelling tale of a family's trauma and recovery, Elizabeth's story is captivating throughout every stage of her journey. EDIT
Posted Apr 24, 2019
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019) Valerie Ettenhofer This is the concert experience of a lifetime. EDIT
Posted Apr 19, 2019